Nip that nickname in the bud.

Sara and I would like to let the world know that if we had wanted to name her Char-Char we would have done that in the first place! Are we wrong to want to have our little one be referred to by her real full name instead of some variant form. This past weekend, Sara and I struggled with what to do with and how to approach our day care center who has adopted various forms truncated "Charlotte" as nicknames to throw around. When I think back to the care that we took in constructing what we felt would be a fitting name [see my post So What's in a Name] it pains me to think that it is all slated to be massacred from close to day one. Are we destined to fight this battle in every step of her lifetime? Have we doomed her to to having a nickname that pays homage to one of the most irritatingly annoying comic relief characters from that abomination of a Star Wars prequel*? Arrrraggghhhh!

Here are just some of the other Charlotte nick-reverences we've seen/heard:

• Char
• Cha-Cha
• Lotty
• Charlie
• Tchotchke (who know that that started with a "T"... huh!)
• Cuccamonga

OK, so I made that last one up, but might as well be in there! I am sure that there are others as well but the steam from my ears is fogging up my glasses too much to see things clearly.

In all honesty, I have no problem if Charlotte gets to an age where she chooses a nickname for herself, but please, let's give it time for her develop it on her own rather than being branded.

Sara approached the daycare center yesterday about the issue and hopefully was able to nip it in the bud. We'll see how it all goes. Hopefully I can shelve this rant until at least elementary school. I guess worse comes to worst, we'll just have to exchange our little Tchotchke's name to something without a nickname like... hmm... Sara!

From Five Feet,
Charles

*Thanks to Sara for burning that Char-Char/Jar-Jar relationship in my head.